The big day has come. Our Ellis has now turned the big ONE! I can hardly believe it. The moment we were told would never arrive is upon us. My girl has been on this earth for 365 days and changed our world every, single minute of it.
It's hard to explain what it feels like to almost lose someone, and then have their life returned back to you. It's even more poignant after having lost a spouse, then nearly losing her as well. There were moments in the hospital when my prayers where simply "Lord, please don't let her leave." I had just met this baby girl, I couldn't imagine telling her goodbye so quickly.

Thankfully we didn't have to. Some days I am still shaking my head in disbelief of that fact.

Now here we are, a year of moments with her we thought we might never have. Each and every one of them have been a blessing.

Below are the pictures from her first birthday celebration (photographed by my friend's husband Gib). Although I love to throw a party, I tried to not go too crazy. The yummy food was done by our sweet family friend Betsy, at Bella Marie's. Her smash cake was almost too beautiful to eat, although Ellis had no problem diving right in!

We kept the affair intimately small with our immediate family and 2 of my other friends families who were in the room when we took Ellis off the vent. It was important to me to have all of the people who were there when we thought we were saying goodbye, be a part of this moment. It made such a huge day for our family feel all the more celebratory.

It would have made it even more special to have each of YOU who prayed for her life to be a part of her birthday. Believe me, your thoughts and prayers were not far from my mind that evening. Thank you for all of the love and well wishes you sent our way.

Lastly, I wanted to share a special video below filled with moments from Ellis' first year of life (put together by our family favorite Kaylee). Grab a tissue before you watch it. It will make you filled with wonder at the baby girl who has come so very far and the goodness of our Lord that brought her through. To view click HERE.

Sarah Rodriguez Rhodes

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Ellis Update: Today was a hard morning, guys. We got to the hospital & things just felt all wrong. I don’t know how to explain it other than that. Then the anesthesiologist had issues with some secretions Ellis was having that we were told amplified her risk during the surgery while under anesthesia. Given the past things we’ve walked through, we just decided it wasn’t a risk we were at all willing to take. So we made the decision to go home, re-group & do the surgery another day. Since the surgery is elective we had our medical teams full support in this decision. We are home now & doing well. This wasn’t an easy decision to make. For months we’ve prepared mentally, emotionally, schedule-wise, financially etc for this day. But we have to be lead by peace. And if those giving her medical care also weren’t completely at peace, it just wasn’t the right time, for whatever reason. I don’t always understand the “why” but I won’t always & I’m ok with that. We appreciate your prayers & promise to keep you informed of when her surgery will be in the coming months. Also, the day wasn’t a complete loss...Ellis did get to hang with the cute hospital dog-so at least that part was a win ☺️ Looking for some kind of humor-it’s been a rough day.

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